December 13, 2018Barbara WalshComments Off on Courtney Allen Broke the Cycle of Addiction for Her Boys. Now She’s Helping Other Parents Do the Same.

Today we conclude a four-part series on Maine’s struggles with maternal substance abuse, which has placed a heavy stress on the state’s hospitals and child welfare system. This series, written by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Barbara […]

December 12, 2018Barbara WalshComments Off on In One Year of Life, Hundreds of Trips to the Doctor

Today we continue a four-part series on Maine’s struggles with maternal substance abuse, which has placed a heavy stress on the state’s hospitals and child welfare system. This series, written by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Barbara […]

December 11, 2018Barbara WalshComments Off on Maine’s Hospitals, and Foster Care, Beleaguered by Drug-Exposed Infants

Today we continue with a four-part series on Maine’s struggles with maternal substance abuse, which has placed a heavy stress on the state’s hospitals and child welfare system. This series, written by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist […]

December 10, 2018Barbara WalshComments Off on With Her Daughter’s Help, a Chance to Parent Again

Today we begin a four-part series on Maine’s struggles with maternal substance abuse, which has placed a heavy stress on the state’s hospitals and child welfare system. This series, written by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Barbara […]

November 2, 2018Sharon McDanielComments Off on We Need Kinship Caregivers, and They Need a Safety Net

I was a teenager in the care of loving fictive kin when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1979 that kinship care is an appropriate child welfare response, and that relatives could not be discriminated […]

For five consecutive years, from 2012 to 2016, federal reports have shown a steady increase in the number of youth living in foster care. Sources within the federal agency tracking this number say that these […]

April 24, 2018Angie Schwartz and Sean HughesComments Off on On Child Welfare, an Insufficient Federal Response to the Opioid Epidemic

In 2012, following more than a decade of significant decline, the number of American children in foster care began rising. Between 2012 and 2016, the number of children in foster care nationally has increased by […]